When the war began
by flying-green-monkey
Summary: The colonies are at war with the cylons, some planets have been destroyed, others occupied, and a few are left as human strongholds. Thirteen year old Kara and her best friend, Zak Adama, are on the run, unsure of what their fate if captured by the cylons. Meanwhile, a war wages, the battlestar galactica, one of the last of its kind, fights on for all those they have lost.
1. Zak: Part one

_Hi, so i've pretty much written the first part of this story, which will be divided into two chapters and told from Zak's point of view. There will be two other parts, the story will carry on but the view points will change. Lee's view point will be the final part._

Zak

Kara Thrace punched me square on the jaw. The hit had enough force to push me back and crash down onto the freshly cut lawn.

'What was that for?' I shouted at her, my voice high and indignant.

She eyed me up.

"Don't say stuff like that'

'Like what? You scared of atheists, Kara Thrace?"

She clenched her fists and readied herself for a full out fight.

'It ain't rights saying stuff like that. The Gods will punish you.'

The fellow thirteen year old looked at me with an odd mix of fury and piety. In our three months of friendship I had never taken Kara to be the religious type, she was nothing but anger and action with a smart brain caught up in it all. My brother told me to stay away from the likes of her, you don't get many friends by being nice to Kara Thrace but you get plenty of enemies. My brother never had sense of fun, she was the only excitement that could be found in the nowhere country town. Besides, you stuck out if you bucked the norm here on Talos and we certainly did that with flare.

'You serious?' I questioned to make sure, searching her face for a sign of breaking laughter. Kara seemed too intelligent to fall for all that crap.

'You don't fool with the Gods, Zak, not ever'

I shrugged my shoulders and tried to move the subject away, the Lords of Kobol never meant much to me and I doubted that they'd start now. Religion had a greater ferocity here than it did on Caprica, they had a different, more old-fashioned, way about it.

Dad had sent me to live with granddad in this one street, backcountry town on a planet so small it didn't counted as a colony. Even the greatest city here had nothing on what lay on Caprica. Anything worth happening occurred on Caprica and anyone worth being settled their roots in Caprica City: except my grandfather. The greatest lawyer of the times had retired in a place nobody knew about, on a planet nobody cared for.

'You ever been off the planet?' I asked, trying to pull Kara back into a good mood. She shrugged.

'Been around with my ma a bit, but me and pa usually stay here. Its not as bad as you think it is… Caprica just blew your ego too big to see past a city's shiny lights'

I looked around us. There wasn't much, nothing but flat fields if you looked west and a few stone houses if you looked east. Whatever Kara was seeing, I couldn't picture it.

'Why would anyone choose this place?'

My friend gave up on me.

'The simple life? I don't know Zak, but from the sounds of it your dad ain't moving you off this rock anytime soon'

She got that right, so I turned away. Nothing like being the screw up son of the great William Adama. Dad reckoned I was on a bad streak and needed to be set right by a father figure, naturally he was too busy to do it himself. It was a good thing that his other son turned out to be golden, Lee was already serving his military service and would be racking up shiny medals in no time.

'Will you join the service when you're old enough? It'd be a good way to get out' I asked and watched as she answered. Despite all the brawl and buff, Kara was quite a pretty girl with light blonde hair and an athlete's body.

'Maybe if pyramid ball doesn't work out. I think ma wouldn't actually chop off my fingers this time if I even considered becoming a pianist'

It was odd the way she said it and I looked at her curiously. Granddad said that Socrata Thrace was a hard woman with a hard heart. I hadn't seen much of her yet, although Kara wasn't exactly looking forward to her mother's return.

'She hates playing that much?'

Kara shook her head.

'No… she just hates pa. Says he's soft, says he's not a real man'

I'd meet Mr Thrace several times; he was a man with a gentle way about him, a surprising trait for a person whose genetics made up half of Kara Thrace.

'But ma's a bitch' Kara finished off without hesitation 'she's just bitter cause people actually like him'

That was an unfortunate truth that most weren't willing to say.

I looked at my watch then up at the sky. Dusk was heading in fast and they'd be squinting for light in half an hour.

'We better head back, I bet granddad would let you stay for supper, I think he likes you more than me.'

Kara flashed a smile that pulled her whole face up. She always tried to calm herself around the old man, she wanted him to like her, and it wasn't all that hard when she actually tried to be nice. Kara had an easy laugh and a good humor that always brightened up granddad, it was hard to be jealous of it cause when Kara lit up it made everything right.

Our house was across from hers and when the wind was right we could hear her father play. Kara would sing sometimes, she had a strong clear voice that carried well; it'd make Granddad stop and listen with a smile pulling at his lips.

Grandma had been dead for over a decade now. My father tried to get him in-house help but Joseph Adama took great offence and refused. Sending me here solved two problems at once, although dad swore it wasn't the reason for my exile.

'Granddad, we're home. Granddad!' I shouted out as I slammed the door shut. The house was unnecessarily big and modeled like the old houses on Caprica. Everything was fine wood and antique fittings, far too grand for it's setting in the Eos Plains.

There was an unsettled quiet in the air, lingering like a bad smell. The intake of Kara's breath told me she felt it too.

'Granddad!' I called out again. There was a rustle and he emerged at the top of the stairs. Joseph Adama had an ashen face that suddenly looked its age. The man had always been one of dignity and as he got older it seemed to be the only thing keeping him upright and healthy. Now shoulders sagged like all the burdens buried in his mind had been released.

'Zak, Kara' The old man said in a breathless unsteady voice.

We ran up too him, as we bounded up the stairs Kara took my hand and squeezed it.

'Granddad, are you alright? Is something wrong, do we need to call the hospital?'

He looked at us incredulously.

'You haven't heard?'

Kara and I looked at each other then back at Granddad.

'Heard what?'

A brief moment of composure took hold like autopilot.

'Come you two, sit down'

He led us to his study, a place reserved for his privacy and punishment. Only the flushed flesh of Kara's hand kept me grounded, even sitting down she wouldn't let go.

Granddad sat down behind his desk and mindlessly reached for a pen and tapped it against the hard surface.

'Children' He addressed us with all the formality of his lawyer years. 'There has been an attack…. Radio reports are coming in that Caprica…. That Caprica and the colonies have been attacked'

My heart was hit with a sharp pain and my whole body stiffened.

'An attack…' Kara said for me.

Granddad nodded.

'Caprica and…. And it appears that other major colonial cities have been targeted. Do you remember the cylon wars?' Grandfather's voice was wavering. The question was redundant. There was no way to not know about the cylon wars; when the creations of man became so great that they turned against their masters. The machinery of man developed the art of basic human survival and slaughters their enslaving creators. The poetry, media, art; the whole culture of the colonies had shifted since that war. The older generation lived with memories of desolation and destruction and only since them have people eased as each wave of children grew and experiences turned to myths and stories.

'It appears the cylons have returned, exceptionally strong. Things are coming through in fragments but the cylons are demanding surrender, that much is clear, and I believe Talos will give it. This planet isn't a colony; there are no military forces here. Children, I will speak to you bluntly because very soon you will become adults. I estimate that within the hour this planet will be under cylon control and then only the Gods know our fate'

He was speaking with a voice I'd never heard, his eyes looked past us. I leant across the table and took the radio in my hand and turned the knob. Kara sat stunned as fuzzy reports met our ears and confirmed my grandfather's words. .

'My father is in Eris' Kara said with a hollow voice 'he said he'd be gone for just a day, be back by breakfast tomorrow' She turned to me with wide eyes 'He'll be back right? He'll come back?'

I couldn't answer; I couldn't find my voice.

Night crept forth with no real sense of time passing. Kara and i slept holding each other in an armchair, both of us falling in and out of consciousness with no real rest. Caprica was gone. My home: my family. It seemed an impossible thought.

Dad and Lee would be on Battlestar and how long would they last. I should have been up on the Galactica, the one dad had worked on was being turned into the museum and retirement ceremony was yesterday. I'd refused to go, still angry with dad for sending me away to this rock.

Mum would be dead. Those words didn't even make sense. Our grand modern house that she loved would be gone, so close to Caprica city it'd surely be burning. I rocked back and forth. How do you deal with this? How do you accept it?

I closed my eyes and pictured my lost room. Once upon a time, Lee and I had shared, then he became too serious to have a younger brother beside him and I had the room all to myself. Everyone looked on it as a good thing but it became too dark and quiet without him. My toys had too much space and all my worldly belonging couldn't fill it up. My photos, posters and books, did they even exist now? Or were they just burning rubble.

Mum.

Mum with her greying hair and warm smell. Carolanne Adama. I whispered her name just to hear it, to make it exist again in the world. .

Kara stirred beside me, her entire weight leaning into my side. She hadn't done her crying yet, just kept quiet and still every time I erupted with realization. Granddad couldn't look at us; he went off and stayed in his room, sitting even stiller than Kara.

Gods.

Kara. I had Kara. I shifted myself so her head laid closer to mine. We would stay together; protect each other. The cylons were coming and I would not watch her die, we needed to survive.

Gently I shook her awake. Daylight was seeping through the windows and we couldn't grieve any longer. She looked up at me with bleary eyes and for a moment she'd forgotten then the sadness hadn't crept into them.

'We got to get ready, we got to get ready to leave' Realization hit but ploughed through it to understand my words. The cylons were coming; coming to kill or captivate, neither option seemed right to wait for.

'Do you know anywhere on this rock we hide?'

Kara bit her lip and thought.

'The wilderlands, its all uncultivated. Most people would head to the northern hills, not to the south, but I think the south would be safer'

I nodded. There were myths surrounding the wilderlands, people said there were monsters there, the rational people said it was a harsh inhospitable environment, but Kara was right. There was nowhere to hide in the fields and only the Ino forest would provide shelter but that was the obvious place.

I crept into my grandfather's study. He was awake and still, looking without seeing.

'Granddad, Granddad?' The old man lifted his tired head. My grandfather had been a great man of his time, he wrote the law books students studied today and was generally regarded as one of the greatest minds of the generation, right next to the likes of Gaius Baltar.

'We got a plan granddad, we got to get out of here, I don't want to surrender'

A smile ghosted Joseph Adama's lips.

'Good son, that's good son.' He rested his hand on my shoulder 'You and Kara look after yourselves, stick together'

'Aren't you coming?' My stomach dropped and my insides hollowed.

'I won't make it out there. I'm too old for this. I want to die in this house, the one your grandmother and me built. My fighting was done long ago.'

'Granddad…'

'Please, Zak. Leave with Kara.'

The man looked so old now, the last bits of life leaving him. My aunt and uncle, his children were probably dead, as would their children. The survival of my father offered limited hope. His life had ended even though his breathing hadn't.

I crept back into the other room where Kara was finishing the packing. Her mother was a marine and had plenty of survival supplies, which we divided between packs.

'Granddad isn't coming' I said the words as if I was confirming the truth.

Her hands stilled and mouth rolled out a soft 'oh'. I swear there was tear that drowned her usual sparking temper.

'You better say goodbye, he always liked you'

She nodded and followed her into the other room, only to anchor myself at the door and watch the scene unfold. Kara hugged granddad. The man had never hugged me; he was a hand shaker and valued a tight firm grip. Kara looked like small child in the way she wrapped her arms around the old man, a broken little girl who never quite learned the art of a parent's touch. When she emerged from the room she had stiffened, her face held together by the cold steel of empty emptions.

'We'll take the bikes' were her first words. 'We can ride through the fields' She kept quiet about anything else, working silently to prepare.

It was strange how blue and clear the sky was that next morning. Terrible things were happening but the day was fine and warm, in my mind the sky was streaks of black and red with thunderbolt flying, that backdrop seemed far more appropriate to the new reality. In far off distance there was smoke but you could almost trick yourself to believe it a bonfire, common for the region in autumns and winters.

We set off before midday, neither keen to admit that we may have left for good. Granddad kissed our heads and waved us off as if we out for an afternoon bike ride and would be back in time for dinner.

The track was bumpy and we both lost the ability and will to speak. It was a monotonous ride; even the way my legs began to ache had a repetitive rhythm. When the day faded into the evening's blue hue we quickened our pace, it was easier in the cooler air but only lasted as far we could see.

I only looked behind me when we stopped for the night, when I squinted I swore I could see a soft orange haze lighting up the distance.

'You think it's the cylons?'

Kara nodded grimly.

'The radio said they were coming, we should have left earlier'

Maybe, but we didn't know how bad it was earlier or where to go. Even now it was hard to know.

We took turns to sleep, each falling into darkness out of exhaustion, too tired to dream and think. By the first crack of dawn we rode again. Pockets of black smoke appeared in the distance, as it had the day before but this time more pronounced and sinister, so we were careful to keep off the main road.

'Gods' Kara muttered. She said her prayers frequently now, whispering the familiar words as she rode. If there were any Gods, I believed they had abandoned us or unable to help, but Kara kept her faith unwavering.

Towards the afternoon we reached a farmhouse, at first we thought had been abandoned, but as we got closer found a smoldering ruin only a day old. Kara took charge and waved me back as she crept forward against my advice. Half the house was still in tact and held the promise of food. This was how Kara reasoned with me as she pulled a knife from her pack. I doubted a knife would be any help against a steely cylon and hoped to the Gods she wasn't considering the former human residents. She disappeared from sight for a moment before in high voice called me forward.

'Zak! Quick! Bring the packs!'

I bounced forward in clumsy steps, heaving the packs to her voice. On rounding the corner my throat gagged up and palms got sweaty. A woman laid a bloody mess of limbs on the ground, half her face burned.

'Its okay' Kara swallowed her hysteria and made her shaky hands steady 'We got some morphine, it'll help the pain'

The woman had been pretty once with hair even fairer than Kara's and a sharp face. Her eyes moved to Kara and a soft smile set on her lips.

'Lords of Kobol' Kara prayed, looking down at the wreckage that had been a human being 'I don't know how to help' There was so much damage and so much bleeding.

The woman took her hand.

'Thank you' A rasp came.

Tears began to plough down Kara's face with a devastation I'd never seen on any human being. Looking around the burnt out room properly, I saw several other bodies blackened and dead.

'I can say a prayer, I don't know what else to do'

The woman nodded and Kara began.

'_Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer, have mercy on the souls of the dead and dying, deliver them to the fields of Elysium, to meet again in eternal peace and happiness. Let the Gods guide us through this life and the next, forever more. So say we all._'

The woman swallowed though it seemed to hurt.

'Thank you… I'll remember you…'

A shuddering breath came forth and Kara collapsed weeping with blood on her hands and a dead woman's head in her lap.

We had to get out. There could be no burial, there was no time and the stench of death was too strong. The cylons had been here and could still be close.

I carefully helped Kara up and was guiding her to the bikes when I heard the high notes of a horses' call. Three of them stood grazing half a mile away. Our bikes were the cheap sort, made for smooth gravel and I doubted how long they'd hold up in the rough bumpy fields.

'Kara, I need you to focus, we have to find a saddle, it'll be easier to ride than bike' They'd be more visibility but it'd make the terrain easier when they reached the wilderland. Kara didn't respond so I sat her down and made a run for the barn, praying the sight would be less than the house. The equipment was all there, my mother enjoyed riding so I knew how to saddle a horse at least. I picked the speckled horse for myself and the steady brown mare for Kara, our new transport, both seemed easy tempered and willing for riders.

'Are you sure its safe?' The fearless Kara Thrace asked cautiously, it nearly made me laugh.

'Your scared of horses' She glared with all the fury and anger I wanted back.

'No, machines are just more reliable' Kara said the words before she could take them back and in a wave of reluctant release we laughed but it could barely cover the horror literal behind us.

The journey was easier and faster with the horses although our increased visibility increased our caution. After a while I stopped thinking. Thinking about anything seemed to hurt so I let emptiness wash over me and fought to keep it in place. Conversations with Kara were about the simple immediate needs and survival. It felt good to have the horse, their movements and behavior was comforting and normal, and lacked any grief.

'It should be another's days ride or so'

We were moving further away from roads and houses, more and more fields were looking wild and abandoned. Talos never had a large population; they'd been a boom thirty years ago when a government program came through that was meant to encourage farming. It halfway worked, although the people came most of the left within the decade and much of the newly cultivated land was left to rot. My grandfather's house laid in the mid ground where crop turned to rot only a few miles out. It was logical reasoning that cylons wouldn't be out here because there simply wasn't people the further out you got, aside from the odd monotheistic oddball cult.

The sky was red that evening, a sure sign of the coming rain. Kara pointed to a rise in the distance.

'That's the Wilderlands up there'

The light was low and there wasn't much to see but I felt the relief all the same.

'You ever been there?' I asked as I leapt off the horse, who I'd named Anders after the greatest Pyramid ball player of time. In the first intended joke in days, Kara said if I wanted that I should have called it 'Thrace'.

'Ma use to drop me off there for a few days, survival training or some crap like that, got hyperthermia once and she said it was my own bloody fault. Never thought I'd be useful, kind of hate her more because it is'

Kara was easier with her horse now though still a bit cautious.

'You know how a machine is supposed to work, with all its clogs and movements, but you can't tell with beasts. Guess they're the original cylon, can turn on you at any moment' Kara reasoned 'Thank the Gods they don't have opposable thumbs'

It was beginning to get easier to pretend, not that everything was okay, but just that nothing else existed except the here and now. Kara stopped loosing herself in stillness so much and as if her personality was a muscle, she eased herself out of the ache and into a shadow of what she used to be.

We slept under a small tarp that night, originally planning to rotate on watch but quickly we both fell into a sleep that only broke with a heavy morning rain. We had thick, waterproof jackets but it didn't stop the wet from seeping into our bones through our exposed hands and faces. The fields shifted to flat dirt that would have been dusty on a fine day but became nothing but mud when the weather broke. Through it all the wilderlands became clear and welcomed us with all its legendary hospitality. The terrain was rough and barren although Kara said there was swampland on the other side of the particularly small mountain.

'The weather must be bad on the other side if its raining here' Kara commented with a grim look 'Usually the mountain keeps the rain from reaching these plains'

I looked around.

'these don't really count as plains, no matter how hard you imagine'

She rolled her eyes 'Well whatever you want to call it, I swear, it usually doesn't rain' Except when it did travelers became caked in a thick swallowing mud.

I never went camping as a kid; Dad didn't have time and mum didn't have the inclination. We lived in suburbia outside Caprica city, there was lots of green but all artificially structured to suit the perfect neighborhood. Occasionally, Lee and I would pretend on the lawn, make tents out of old bed sheets and steal food from the kitchen. We never managed to sleep out there for a full night, it always got too cold, so we'd creep inside with hanging heads to our beds which welcomed us in warm blankets without judgment.

I wondered if this would be the rest of our lives; mud and hunger, or would the nuclear bombs eventually go off and we'll just die all the same. We had a battery run radio that we turned on at nights, the wavelinks were mostly run by cylons now, their voices sounded the same but you could always tell from the contents. Everyone would be safe, they said, if we didn't resist and followed orders. "Refugee" camps were being set up, there was a lot of propaganda about how these camps were being established to foster peace and harmony. I doubted it, so did Kara.

The further out we got, the less you could make out in amongst the fuzziness. By now it didn't really matter, neither of us wanted to listen to it anymore.

A week had passed since the initial attack and we were far into the wilderlands. We couldn't decide where or if to stop so we just kept riding until we collapsed. Indecision formed the decision, in the end. The Kara saw it, out in the repetitive barren landscape she spotted the oddity out in the distance. A definitive crossroads had been reached.


	2. Zak: Part two

Kara spotted the smoke. It wasn't the thick black smoke of before, this one seemed industrial and smog like and piped into the air like a twisted gagging perfume. It was a sign of civilization that struck the terror of uncertainty within me.

Kara was keen to approach and I wouldn't stay without her, so we tied the horses up, buried our supplies, and started our way towards the smog. Like Kara promised, the other side of the mountain was swampy, the kind I thought only existed in fairy tales. It green and everything hung downwards. The smell was awful but its constant presence made you focus on the present. Dampness began to cling to us, leaving our clothes permanently cold and wet.

It was a five-hour walk before we got any decent view. The swampland thinned out over the distance and curved up into dry rolling hills with tall scrub, far off we could see a concrete complex of buildings and watch towers with a great wire fence enclosing it.

'You think the cylons know about this place?' I asked Kara, squinting my eyes. She shrugged and carefully moved closer. There were human people moving around, easy to spot in their white labcoats but too far away to see their faces.

'Holy fraking gods' Kara's breath hitched 'Cylons…'

She was right. It clunked into view; a massive chrome device that looked far more sinister than its depictions in the history books. The thing was taller the average man and moved with ease. There were no human features, nothing that gave away emotion. The only movement in its face, if you could even call it that, was a sweeping red light that flashed through slit.

My father had fought in the first cylon war, he'd been a fighter pilot and hailed as one of the best. He'd tell stories, like most of the veterans, about the war with a heavy dose of nostalgia and wistfulness. Maybe his war was different or time turned it all into technicolour, but seeing the enemy didn't trigger any feelings of heroic bravery. I felt scared; more scared than I'd ever felt in my entire life. These cylons were powerful with built in guns and computer calculated acruracy. In school, we taught that our faults, the imperfections of the human mind, was ultimately what made us better than the machines but they never included the death count in these inspirational teachings.

We stayed under coverage while edging around the complex perimeter. I wanted to move, go somewhere safer, but Kara had a lethal curiosity and I wasn't going to leave her on her own.

'It's the old military base I think' Kara finally concluded 'Ma said there use to be one around that got abandoned twenty years after the first cylon war'

'And they just took it over?'

Kara shrugged.

'It's a good idea, this planet isn't important and there's almost zero population around here, who would know'

There was a road on the far side of the camp and was by far the busiest area. Trucks were coming and going in constant procession.

'I can't see whats in them' Kara complained, I could feel her temptation to move forwards.

'No! Don't go any further, there is watch towers around, who knows the technology they got'

'Don't be a wuss, watch towers are mean for the skies, no one comes from the ground anymore'

I tried grabbing her arm but she pushed me off. There was a moment when I could have moved after her but it passed so swiftly through me that by the time Kara was several metres away I was paralyzed in fear. My limbs wouldn't move and my eyes went wide watching kara sleek forward and further towards the danger.

There was ten minutes of hard breathing before she returned and we slunk back to the safety of the swampland.

'Its kids' She panted, either from distress of physical tiredness 'They're shipping in kids by the truckload, and there's adults but they all look the same just several copies'

'What are they doing with the kids?'

Kara shrugged but her eyes were wide and scared.

'I don't know, but if they're stealing kids from the surrendering colonies… and everyone else is dying, then that's the…. Is that the whole human population, can they do that?'

I shook my head. None of this seemed possible.

'We should watch it for a while' Kara made up her mind 'It looked like there was a court off on the east wing of the complex, maybe we could figure out what they're doing'

A cold shiver hit my bones.

'No, no, no, no, Kara. We need to set up a place to live, survive and make it through this'

She snapped her head towards me, there was fire in her eyes and a steely edge in her voice.

'Wait? Wait for what? Even if your Daddy comes to the rescue with big ol' Galactica, its going to be nothing but fighting, there will be more dying than rescuing. Think logically, Zak, it's a war now and we're behind enemy lines, so we can either hole up and live like animals or start dying like heroes, start fighting from within.'

Her voice was going as high as her moral pedestal.

'We're thirteen! THIRTEEN! I ain't a solider and no matter what you pretend, neither are you. We're not meant to fight, Kara.'

'Maybe that's how it use to be' Her anger was falling back now, heading to soft realizations 'but not anymore, Zak. Everything is different now'

We walked back to our base camp in silence. It wasn't the grieving sort from before but a lingering tension

She was going to get us killed. We weren't the kid heroes that saved the day in all her storybooks. There wasn't much on our side, the only a hunting rifle that was good for killing deer but not much else. Kara knew how to box and she was good for her age group, but she'd never be able to take out a full grown man, let alone a metal beast three times her size. I, on the other hand wasn't much good at anything.

'I don't mean going in guns blazing' kara added quietly 'I'm not a fool. But you should have seen those kids. I was so close to them, they were our age and younger, and things are so much worse for them. Maybe we could find a way and sneak some out, a few at time.'

Her idea was noble yet had a dream like quality.

'The perimeter is heavily guarded…'

'Yeah… but you saw those massive drains. Theres no electrical wires out here, it'd have to be making its on energy; they probably use the water, a whole under ground system built in the military base days. We could find an entrance and figure a way in, one the cylons probably don't even know about…. Then, then, I don't know, maybe one of use could get onto the trucks and lead the kids on the inside out the secret way.'

Her mind was starting to work in a way I hadn't seen before. It was like when Dad had Uncle Tigh over for dinner and they'd talk war strategy, theorize over different scenarios. She had that sort of mind and unlike Lee, who hit the books hard, it all came naturally to her.

She wasn't going to drop it so I appeased.

'We'll investigate, that's all, decide when you have an actual plan that you didn't bullshit from the top of your head'

A grin spread over her features and she leapt on to me, giving an aggressively tight hug. I buried my head in her hair. We hadn't washed properly in a week but it still smelt nice and girly. Kara had very pretty hair even if it was boyishly short.

The next day we moved our supplies closer to the cylon complex and circled the perimeter searching for storm drains. They had been well covered by foliage and dirt but some sections of concrete were revealed and from there it was just walking to find the source. It didn't surprise me that there was a locked grate covering the entrance but it looked old and feeble, denting then cracking with a few slams of a hard rock. In the distance there was a soft mechanical hum and the steady flow of water indicated that Kara was right that the military used hydropower, this was one of the smaller lines part of a much larger system. We slugged down the dark tunnel and I tried to ignore the feeling of slime rubbing on my skin. There was a torch to light the way but nothing to see in the endless horizontal pit. It was a steady hours walk before anything of interest came to sight. We heard the machinery long before we saw it; a great rumbling of old clogs and gears. Places like these were built to last self sufficiently although the technology was long outdated. Even if it was still wired up to the complex it was unlikely to be used outside of light switches and air conditioning. Modern generators could produce much greater power out of small and compact machinery.

We eventually came to a large concrete room that contained the machinery. The air had a stale damp smell and the walls were papered with thick green algae. From here we didn't know what to do, which passage to turn down.

'It must lead into the complex somehow, we might be underneath it already' Kara commented as she looked around. There journey had a gradual slant and it was likely they were now far under ground. In the far side of the room, half hidden by mass machinery, we found an inconspicuous door. The lock looked as if it'd be broken for years and with hard budging the door stuttered open with a heavy groan.

A new passage was exposed; soft orange lights lighted this one. It was long but vertical ladders occasionally crept up the walls and gradually the hallway accented to stairs.

'What will we do if we save them, have you thought about that Kara?' The question hadn't occurred to me before, and asking it broke a long streak of silence.

'They'll be out… that's enough isn't it' There was an uncertainty in her voice. 'Its what heroes are suppose to do, we're suppose to save the children'

The girl was delusional. For all her survival knowledge she was just a stupid little girl. The anger ripped through me but the words that came from my mouth held a calm steady tone.

'This ain't a fairytale. These aren't damsels in distress, the cylons aren't dragons. We might not survive this. There won't be any heroic death, we will be shot on sight, it'll happen before we even see them.'

She spun around angrily and slammed her fists against my chest.

'And what do we do, Zak? Runaway? Runaway where? Cause I'd love to know, where the frak do we go from here. Our safety turned out to be a cylon base! They'll find us eventually, and your right, they'll shoot us dead and there won't be any legendary death. So when they shoot me I want to be morally sound in my heart, I want those fraking gods to know that I was trying. But by all means you can leave and I won't even hate you for it, you won't though… the only thing scares you more than dying is being alone.'

I pushed her back and she stumbled and hit the ground hard, but she was Kara Thrace, so shook her head and glared back with the anger of the so-called gods.

'Then you're a selfish human being, Kara.'

'No! I ain't, you are, you know we're going to die, you just want a few more worthless months. I want to have a good death, cause unlike you I know a good death is hard to find. Now shut the frak up unless you want to make your appointment with Hades sooner'

She was right about that, our voices left soft echoes in the hallway, a call to the cylons.

I wanted to leave her, cut and run back into the darkness and to the perceived safety of the camp. We were going to die. That was Kara's opinion, how she saw the situation, maybe I was the delusional one thinking that we had escaped, that we were safe. We had survived this long on rations but they'd run out eventually and we weren't as good at hunting as we believed ourselves to be.

Kara was tough. That's the first thing I learnt about her, she never pulled out of any punches and kept all the guys convinced she was one of them though never felt as though she had something prove. Kara was better than them, better than me, she was faster, smarter, and stronger. The way Kara saw the world was different from the rest of us, I should have been the worldly one, being well traveled, and liked to think I was. But I was an innocent, they'd never been real danger in my life, yet there was something about Kara that showed she had. She knew a secret about life, she knew something dark about humans. On my part, I had no curiosity to find out what that secret was but a growing dread in my stomach told me I'd soon find out anyway.

Kara motioned me into silence when we came to a door. It creaked open and a sliver of white light came through. The crack was so small that no one on the other side would even notice it open. Kara leaned to the crack and peered through, her breathing was steady but I knew she was scared.

We sat there for hours, taking turns at keeping watch. Occasionally streams of children, guarded by cylons, came past. After the forth hour, we headed back.

'It'd be hard to smuggle kids out there, but there seems to be plenty of passages that'd work. We learn all the passages, know the system, watch the complex from above and below. We can make this work and deal with the rest later'

I'd accepted her call. If we were going to die, might as well make it grand. A week passed, our supplies were low and the horses were released but we'd figured out the cylon complex. It was something of a retraining facility. They were rounding up the kids, but not to kill them.

'I'll go in' Kara declared as we set up for the night. There wasn't any surprise by her statement, we both knew it wasn't something I could pull off. I wasn't my father's son, I didn't have the soldier's mind like Lee and Kara. It kind of pleased me that Kara probably had more guts than Lee, he might follow the rules and regulations but if Kara kept the path she was on she'd always be better out when surviving was the game.

I didn't feel thirteen anymore.

'I'll feed the kids to you, a couple at a time, if things look bad I'll get out too' She concluded and waited for my inevitable critiscm.

'That's all fine and dandy, but how will you get in?'

Two days later I found out how.

It was simple and risky but Kara wouldn't have it any other way. We'd been tense for a while now and it was all released when she wrapped her arms around me and held me so tightly the hug could have lasted forever. My arms easily went around her waist and I became conscious of how small she was. I was getting taller than her and my frame was growing bigger. She was developing in different ways with widening hips and sharpening features.

'It'll all be alright' She promised and set out into the night.

I watched as she walked into the distance. It was a smart strategy. Kara would walk a couple miles up, far enough that the watch towers wouldn't see her step out of the foliage and onto the road, then she'd wander back like a little lost child. The act wasn't hard to play up when we were exactly that, although Kara added a few tears for effect. She walked with a daze and eventually someone came. It wasn't a cylon, although it came from the facility, a broad shouldered woman with dirty blonde hair, wearing a lab coat. The woman approached Kara with kindness, all the welcoming mannerism, then led her into the complex.

My part now was to wait.

I thought about home in the days spent waiting. My father was a military man who loved his job more than he loved his family. He wasn't cold or cruel, not like Kara's mother, and in his way he did love my brother and me but we just weren't enough for him. I figured this out before Lee, who had already set up his military life and had become the shining light in Dad's eyes. Dad was never happy at home, we were the failed perfect family. All the components were right yet we somehow didn't fit together. A choice had to be made; I could join the military and have father or rebel for the right to something else. Guess I could have told him rather than get myself kicked out of the junior academy only six weeks in, problem is that dad's rather hard to get a hold of. I swear mum smiled when she came to pick me up from the principle's office that day, she never wanted me to go. Dad blew a casket and Lee looked at me with such distaste that left bitterness in my mouth for days.

The food situation was going to become desperate soon. Even with Kara gone I kept my portions small and attempted finding edibles plants of some kind close to the tunnels entrance, though never left for long. I would walk up and down the passages for hours at a time, staying still for to long stiffened my limbs like concrete.

On the fourth day of waiting, slight clatter pulled me out of my head. The door was moving. I pressed my back hard against the wall and halted my breathing, my chest pulled in and my arms went rigid.

The door quickly shut and a shadow grasped for air. It wasn't Kara, I knew her shape and breathing too well, but the shadow wasn't cylon either.

A hesitant voice called out. It cracked the air.

'Zak?'

I stepped out. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness but it felt unnatural to be back in the presence of another life form, particularly one other than Kara.

'Kara sent you' I rasped, my voice odd from lack of use, the figure nodded, I gestured him to follow me. We kept a quick pace though the ankle deep water refused to keep us quiet.

'You know is anyone else is coming?'

The boy shook his head, we were in better light now and I could make out his features. He looked my age, though taller and more athletic. His left eye was swollen and purple, a nasty hit that had broken the skin.

'Kara said she'd send more in a week, she just had to get me out now' He gestured to his wound 'The cylons didn't like me much and Kara reckoned I'd get myself killed. Gods, I can't believe she was serious about the escape.'

'Who are you?' The question came out as a grunt. I didn't know how to hold myself around other people anymore, it was strange to be with someone other than Kara and the feeling made me wary.

'Brendan, Brendan Contanza, but everyone calls me hotdog.. or at least they use to. That girl is good you know, I never would have seen her as a rebel, certainly got the cylons convinced she's a good little girl ready for brainwashing.'

I snorted and raised an eyebrow.

'So uh, whats going on in there?'

Brendan collapsed against the wall and gingerly poked at his hurt eye.

'I thought they were going to kill us' He was starting from the beginning 'loaded us all on those trucks and shipped us off. But when we got here…. We were all in these dormitories and gave us uniforms. It likes some twisted boarding school in there. The cylons look like humans now, did you know? But theres only a few different models of them, they all look the same….'

'What are they teaching you?' I tried to pull him back to focus.

'About the gods mostly, or should I say god. The toasters are spiritual apparently; they lap up all that crap about there being a one true God. I didn't even believe in the old gods… I reckon they're trying to brain wash us or something. It was messed up. Obedience or die and all that. I was starting to get angry and act out, thought people like Kara were traiters, she's got everyone fooled, next thing I know she's getting me out of bed in the middle of the night and telling me she knew a way out. I almost didn't believe but, I don't know, it was like she was someone else, someone strong and I just trusted her.'

I nodded 'She was playing you. Kara is tougher than anyone else I know.'

Brenden carried on and I never eased into his presence.

'Well if you say so, they keep talking about harmony and peace though its kind of hard to believe them since they burnt down all our homes. Just hounding us with propaganda, I reckon they give it three weeks and if you're still acting out by then you're added to the furnace… I saw it, wasn't meant to, but I did. Haven't you noticed the way the smoke smells sometimes? I saw them take bodies into the room….'

A heavy silence fell on our shoulders and it was a long while before either of us felt comfortable to speak again.

Brenden had an easy personality, after a few hours of talking he was easy to figure out. We could have been friends in school, not close but causal aquaintances in the very least. He came across as the stereotypical jock, not stupid but not particularly smart and with greater leanings towards sports than anything else.

On Caprica I'd been popular. Not in that 'everyone wants to be me' sort of way, that was Lee, but I was everyone's friend and I liked that about myself. I never had that one best friend into I got to Talos and it was a decision Kara made for me. She needed a friend and that friend was going to be me. Her reputation had been swallowed by rumors and everyone was determined to warn me against her, only granddad thought the friendship would do me any good. At first I didn't believe what they said but the more I knew her, the more I watched her, the more the rumors gained truth. Kara was broken, maybe in the mind but definitely in the bones.

We had at least a week before anyone else was sure to come, though we never left the tunnel system for long. Brenden had a greater knowledge of the outdoors than I did, he enjoyed talking for hours about hunting trips he'd taken with his dad. After a while I stopped listening to the words he was saying although I enjoyed the presence of sound and company.

As the week drew to a close we started taking shifts until the first lot of kids came through. There was five of them aged seven to fourteen. Brenden had taken to exploring the landscape while he hunt and took charge of feeding us all. When the second lot of kids came a few days later we knew we had to move them out. A day and a half trek out, Brenden had found an abandoned hunting lodge that was surrounded by enough foliage not to be seen from air. I stayed at near the complex, waiting and watching kids, while Brenden led small treks back and forth form the cabin, taking a few at a time. Some of the older kids started helping, hiding in trees to keep watch and sending warning signs via whistles. Three weeks after the first batch of kids, one came screaming into the tunnel. Noise had become the one sacred rule amongst us and to hear the kid's high pitch yelps echo down the tunnel made my body cold before I'd even comprehended the words.

'It's a colonial ship!'

My head snapped up and I began barking at the huddled kids around me

'Alright everyone, out! Out! Out!'

We all ran out into the swampland and ploughed wildly through the mud and slimy foliage.

'Keep running, run up to the hills where they can see you, If there's fighting stay hidden, but make sure the colonial ship knows your there before they leave. Virgil, you're in charge'

The freckled boy looked at me in confusion.

'What about you?'

I bit my lip. I was ashamed that I'd almost forgotten her, almost run off to a rescue and left her behind.

'I need to get Kara, get the other kids out if possible'

Not waiting any longer, I turned back and ran the same route I'd come. The sounds of missiles and explosions had begun to fill the air, getting louder as I drew closer to the complex.

It was a rescue. They had to be here to rescue us, but I didn't understand why they were firing at the complex, hundreds, possibly thousands, of children were there. To blow the place up would kill them all. Kill Kara.

I was running.

Kara.

Oh Gods, Kara.

I scambled through the tunnel and without caution flung the secret door open. The brightness momentarily startled me. Everything was moving fast; children crowded the hallway, crying and screaming out to no one in particular. I grabbed one by the shoulders, there was to much noise to hear each other but I shove the kid towards the open tunnel door and indicated they run before grabbing others and doing the same. There were no cylons about, no guards or cloned people. Just kids scared and running without direction.

An explosion caused the walls to shake. More kids were running through the passage but I couldn't stay to direct. I had to find Kara.

Then an explosion hit. A high pitched ringing came before the building shattered. It was loud and blinding and caused my whole world to come to an end. Darkness.

So much darkness.

I fell away from my mind, I could feel myself drifting further away, like I'd collapsed into myself and had no holding to pull myself out.

Darkness.

The first foothold came by smell. Dust, burning, and gunpowder swarmed up my nostrils. I wanted to choke and cough but my mouth wouldn't work. Nothing worked. My limbs came into feeling through pain. There was a heavy weight on me, pushing down on my chest. My left side began screaming, something inside me was wrong, something broken.

Light seeped through my eyelids and with great effort I opened them.

The sky was blue, a hazy blue faded through smoke and dust.

I twitched. Just a bit. Tried to lift my arms and move whatever was crushing my chest. Then something did it for me.

'Zak?' An unfamiliar voice asked. My father had come, he had come to save us.

I blinked. I could see the outline of a woman's face. Did I know her?

Something was lifting me; cool steely arms wrenched me out of the rubble. I screamed. Everything hurt and then it didn't. My arm was pinched and something entered me, making me feel dreamy and light.

When I awoke the second time, my surroundings came into view clearly. The soft bouncing indicated I was on a truck, laid across some blankets on the floor of an enclosed cargo area. I sat up and touched my side only to regret it.

'You broke a rib but its healing up nicely' The same clear voice of before informed me. I awkwardly twisted to look at the woman but was drawn to the body laying next her. Kara's head laid in her lap, the woman took to stroking her hair periodically.

'Kara' My voice caught in my throat.

'She'll be okay. I had to sedate her more heavily than you. Bit of a fighter she is and her injuries are worse than yours. Do you remember me Zak?'

I shook my head.

'I was at the farmhouse, the one you and Kara came across. She prayed for me.'

My eyes widened and the woman let out a soft laugh.

'I forget that this is all new to you… human looking cylons. I died there, or at least that body did, and was downloaded to another.'

I forced my voice to work.

'You're helping us'

The woman nodded, though her words struck fear into me.

'I am. Although you won't see it that way at first, none of the humans do, even the youngest of your kind. We're going to a camp on one of the more secure planets, Its unfortunate what happened here, so many children have died at the hands of the colonists… though not all I believe, it was easy to figure out what Kara was doing, we should have figured it out sooner really. Kara was with me when the attack happened, she tried to get away and one of the centurions hit her a little too hard. I think she feels a little betrayed, she honestly thought I was human. We still have souls though, we are God's children and are more aware of God's plan. Kara is a part of it, she has a destiny.'

I wanted to tell the woman, the cylon, that she was crazy. A lunatic. I wanted to yell and scream and curse, but it seemed too much effort and even with the anger welling up inside me I knew it wouldn't do anything. A guilty relief filled me to see Kara's chest steadily rise and fall with each breath.

We were alive though we no longer had control of whether we stayed that way. A let the blackness take me back, it seemed safer there.


End file.
